A game between two of the worst teams in the N.B.A. unfolded appropriately enough on Sunday evening.

There was sloppy passing, crooked shooting, ham-handed dribbling, questionable decision-making and, over all, a general air of indifference. The fans in the sellout crowd at Madison Square Garden responded, in turn, with two hours of sustained quietude that belied their presence at a professional sports event.

In the end, the Knicks — playing without Carmelo Anthony, who sat out with a migraine headache — proved more inept than the Sacramento Kings, who slunk away from the Garden with an 88-80 victory, their 27th win. The Knicks fell to 28-43 and looked as if they could use a good night’s sleep.

The game was the Knicks’ first back at home after six straight on the road — a trip that took them through Denver, Phoenix, Los Angeles, Oakland and Washington. Kurt Rambis, the team’s coach, noticed that his club, which had played on Saturday night, looked sluggish during the pregame walk-through on Sunday. He could tell that crisscrossing time zones had drained his players. That did not augur well for the game itself.

Evidence of the Knicks’ somnolence abounded early on. In the first quarter, DaMarcus Cousins swiped an offensive rebound with surprising ease and notched a second-chance basket after a missed Kings free throw. In the second, Rudy Gay reverse-dunked over Robin Lopez from a virtual standstill.

The Knicks clawed back from their abysmal start and kept things relatively close, mostly thanks to Lopez, who scored 23 points while shooting 9 for 20 from the field and grabbing 20 rebounds. But the Kings’ lead never quite felt threatened. Cousins grabbed 20 rebounds, too, and led all scorers with 24 points. The Knicks shot 35.2 percent from the field. The Kings shot 39.8 percent.

“It felt empty,” Lopez said of his impressive statistical performance.

The game, if only from an aesthetic standpoint, could have used a player like Anthony. According to the Knicks, he began feeling migraine headache symptoms during Saturday’s game. On Sunday afternoon, Anthony went through the team’s walk-through at the arena, but bright lights were aggravating the symptoms. He spent some time before the game in a dark room to calm the pain, to no avail.

The Knicks have lost all eight games that Anthony has missed this season.

The Knicks were also missing Kevin Seraphin (sore left foot) and Lance Thomas (sprained left medial collateral ligament). Before the game, Seraphin had an X-ray exam, which showed nothing serious.

The absences compelled the Knicks to recall Cleanthony Early from their Development League affiliate. It was Early’s first time dressing for the Knicks since he was shot in the right leg in a robbery in Queens on Dec. 30.

“When you look back on it, the biggest part of it was just how fortunate he was that something more disastrous didn’t happen, especially when you look at what could have happened with his knee,” Rambis said of Early.

Early had been scheduled to play four D-League games with the Westchester Knicks, but illness forced him to miss all but one of those contests. Early entered the game on Sunday just before halftime. He played 19.3 seconds and accrued no statistics.

Nevertheless, Early’s mere presence was a bright spot for the Knicks on an otherwise forgettable night.

“That’s one of my close friends,” Langston Galloway said of Early. “The beginning was definitely hard for him, just knowing that, man, I could be gone right now. But secondly, it was, I really have a second chance. And he wants to show that he can come back from this.”

There are 11 games left on the Knicks’ schedule.

REBOUNDS

Given the Knicks’ needs at the point guard position, RAJON RONDO’s name has often come up in speculation about free agents the team might pursue this summer. Asked early last month about the Knicks, Rondo (2 points, 6 assists) said the team’s triangle offense was “not really a good look for me.” DEREK FISHER, the Knicks’ coach at the time, responded shortly afterward, saying, “You can’t ask a guy that wasn’t very successful playing against it whether or not he wants to come play in it.” On Sunday, it was Rondo’s turn to respond. Reminded of Fisher’s comments on Sunday morning, Rondo said, “He might’ve blacked out a couple of times.” Using some colorful language, he noted that he and the Boston Celtics had beaten Fisher and the Los Angeles Lakers, who ran the triangle offense, in 2008. He acknowledged that the Lakers had beaten the Celtics in the finals two years later. And Rondo was more diplomatic about the viability of the triangle: “I think it’s great for team chemistry,” he said.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page D6 of the New York edition with the headline: Tired and Depleted, Knicks Stumble to Defeat. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe